Re: John -- let Mark Blyth explain it to you, then you'll have a better understanding Archived Message
Posted by dovetailjoint on March 23, 2019, 4:27 pm, in reply to "Re: John -- let Mark Blyth explain it to you, then you'll have a better understanding"
Going back centuries one of the great concerns about democracy was the problems relating to the tyrrany of the majority. As most people for most of history haven't owned very much or had an 'interest' in the economy, those, a minority, who did have property and 'interests' where fearful that democracy would mean the majority taking power and wealth away from the ruling elite. Fortunately for them they found various ways of making sure this didn't happen. Today of course we have once again entered the realm of the 'tyrrany of the majority' with Brexit. What about the rights of the minority who don't want to leave the EU? Does a majority in England really have the authority to drag the rest of the UK out with them? What if that slim majority no longer exists? Secondly we have to look at the complex concept of 'citizenship.' Democracy never meant 'one man one vote.' Democracy was about citzenship from the very beginning. Who had the right to vote in ancient Athens and other Greek city states. That was about 20% of the population of Athens. Women, slaves, the poor, foreigners didn't have a vote, only citizens. What about the close to to million Brits living overseas, many in Europe, that didn't have a vote? For example, me. I wasn't allowed to vote, even though I am a British citizen. Is that fair or even democratic? Then we have to look at 'informed citizenship.' For democracy to function properly one needs an informed group of citizens. The left used to accept this argument, as the lack of an informed electorate explained why so many working class people voted Tory, against their own objective interests, what happened?
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